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The Next iPhone Could Put 15,000 Repair Companies Out of Business

At every step, Apple wants to lock down the device to be only repaired, replaced or modified by them. Their hardware sales dwarf all their other revenue sources by magnitudes. Only two exceptions to this in recent memory – the 2017 iMac has one more modular part than previous models, and changing Touch ID on a repaired iPhone no longer bricks the phone, after a large amount of backlash. Everything else is more soldered down and locked in than ever before. The solution is straightforward – free yourself from the Apple (and for that matter, any) ecosystem.

“If you take a phone with a cracked screen to the Apple Store, the Geniuses there don’t have to swap the button from your old screen to the new one. According to one current and two former Apple Store employees, there is a “Calibration Machine” in the back room of every Apple store that is able to reset the pairing between Touch ID buttons and the Secure Enclave. So when Apple replaces your screen, it simply recalibrates the new button to work with your existing phone.”